-------------------------------------------------------------------- ALAN RIDING is chief of the Mexico City bureau of The New York Times. By ALAN RIDING NEW FACE - The grande dame of Mexican resorts, having begun to show wrinkles of neglect and...

By MARVINE HOWE; MARVINE HOWE is a reporter on the metropolitan staff of The Times

LEAD: ON those rare powder-gray days, or if the cornflower sky becomes too monotonous, many Acapulco vacationers turn away from pools and chaises to their second favorite pastime: shopping. An impressive part of the population of this tropical...

Mazatlán, Cabo San Lucas, Puerto Vallarta and Acapulco were among the industry's marquee ports when cruising blossomed 30 years ago. But competition from smaller Pacific ports like Zihuatenejo and Manzanillo is taking its toll and calls to the...

IT'S only a 15-minute drive from Acapulco to Pie de la Cuesta, but that's far enough to journey from a hot, frantic city to a sleepy little sandbar of a village where a dip in the sea and a nice red snapper may be the only events of the day. Most...

WHEN the Mexican Government officially opened its new superhighway to Acapulco last summer, the temptation to head to the coast for the weekend proved irresistible. To a New Jersey native used to running to the Shore the parallel seemed obvious. What...

By ROBERT REINHOLD; ROBERT REINHOLD is head of the Los Angeles bureau of The New York Times

ON the Mexican Riviera, this is a season of transition and renewal, a winter of uncertainty in paradise. In Puerto Vallarta, the once sleepy fishing village that first gained fame and Hollywood stars when Tennessee Williams's tale of decadence,...